Demons meet Altona again

March 16 2003By Geoff Mathers

It's the fourth year in a row the Premier Division bowls grand final will be played between Melbourne and Altona. They will clash next Sunday at Sunbury, after the Demons convincingly defeated Darebin, which came from being nearly relegated four weeks ago.

Altona and Melbourne have led the division all season, with Altona holding a 2-1 lead.

Melbourne will go into the final as favourite after its solid display yesterday on the slick 17-second turf to keep Darebin City always a dozen shots at bay after the 18th end.

There were brilliant performances from leads John McCarron, Angelo Cardamone and Darren Bond.

The match-up of the afternoon was between Grant Hopwood of Melbourne and Ray Morrissey. They were locked in a low-scoring 25 ends which saw Morrissey taking the honours 20/14 after being down by one shot (11/10) on the 17th.");document.write("

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Morrissey was probably best on the green, but he stood alone for Darebin.

The contest between Russell Green Jnr's rink and Rob Campbell's of Darebin was the telling one. Melbourne's Brett Leyton, Lindsay Bell and John McCarron were outstanding and given terrific support by Barry McGregor, who overtook the talented left-hander Brett Spurr on the last end, after Spurr had led comfortably all day.

After his tough and polished performance last week, Brenden Hoey of Darebin could not hold off the rampaging Brian Richards.

Melbourne was just too talented when the pressure was on to win the match.

Darebin's Rob Campbell said immediately afterwards: "They have more polished upfront depth than us. They didn't panic, and the best side stood up to be counted."

Melbourne looks set to sweep aside Altona next Sunday if the team can stay focused.

In the division one semi-final at Clayton, Burden Park took an early lead over favourite Dandenong Club at Clayton and then lost the lead at 70th end for a minute. The team regained the winning desire and steamrolled into the grand final next week at a venue the RVBA would not reveal until next week.

Burden Park's Doug O'Donnell as Laurie Caulfield's third was easily best on green, with John Smith, Ken McKenzie and Greg Crozier giving a bold display of why the quiet achiever Burden Park should be in premier division next season.

Next weeks two division one grand finalists Caulfield Park and Burden Park will both be promoted to premier division next season, to replace Essendon, which is rumoured have already had an exodus of 10 of its 16, and Sunbury.